


Dream

by AbeLincolnLover



Category: story competetion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23935897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbeLincolnLover/pseuds/AbeLincolnLover
Summary: Nice dream
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jen and Erin :)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Jen+and+Erin+%3A%29).



I awoke with a start, bolting straight upright in my bed.

Was I still underwater? Was I still surrounded by those toaster-fishes? I gazed around the dark bedroom, my heart still thumping out of my chest. A few beads of sweat trickled down my forehead, and I became acutely aware of just how hot the room had become. Flinging the flannel covers off, I collapsed flat on my back and willed myself to breathe normally.

I couldn’t remember much of the dream, except that it was a nice one. Partial remnants remained in my memory – something about a garden and a small boat on a windy day – but the overall dream was lost to my subconscious forever. Perhaps I could remember, if I returned to the dream world…

I was shaken out of my pre-slumberous state by a feeling of eyes on my skin. I squinted my eyes as if that would help me see any better through the hazy curtain of darkness. Finding no nightmarish creature lurking about in my bedroom, my sleepy mind waved the feeling off and commanded my eyes to close once more.

But the feeling came back full blast, so I again opened my eyes to find myself facing the completely opposite direction. Had I fallen asleep? I found my sheets pulled up to my chin – soft, silken sheets that I had never known myself to own – and a tremendous sound of pounding rain hitting against the window. I pushed the covers off, only to encounter a blast of frozen air. I walked to the window and peered outside.

Rain, as expected.

And a world entrenched in darkness.

I retreated from the window and laid myself back on my bed, the silken sheets feeling like ice blocks against my body. I pulled the sheets back over my body and willed myself to sleep once more.

I could not sleep.

I heard the rain stop. Finally. Perhaps now I would be able to sleep once more.

But the curtains were fluttering, as if they were waving me over. Sunlight was streaming past them, golden rays attempting to cut through to my dark bedroom.

I ran over to the window and yanked back the curtains. A beautiful garden, filled with roses and, by the smell of things, freshly dug. I opened the window and hopped out into the yard, landing in the softest flowerbed I had ever traipsed through. A pond sat in the middle of the foliage, filled with small, tiny fishes. I sat down beside the pond and dangled my feet in the water.

I felt something small hit my shoulder, as if someone had thrown a rock at me. I looked over my shoulder just in time to get hit by another small thing, right in the face. I called out, “Hey, watch it!”

No response.

I looked down to find what had hit me. There were two small white orbs on the ground. Could they be pearls?

I picked one up, and instantly realized they couldn’t be pearls. They were too squishy. I rolled it around in my hand until I saw a piercing black circle on the other side, encircled by a blue circle.

Could they be -?

I threw the eyeball away from me in disgust, just as the garden began to wilt and decompose around me. The pond grew unfathomably hot to the point of boiling, and I drew back my legs from it. The fishes in it had turned to toasters and the smell of an electrical shock filled the air. They started to pull me in, drowning me in the chemical brown water, but I fought them off and climbed ashore.

I ran back to my window and jumped through it, landing heavily on the floor. I crawled back into bed, throwing the sheets over my head – as if that would protect me – and willed my eyes to close and return to the dream world once more…

I awoke with a start, in flannel sheets and a thumping heart.


	2. Jen's Dream

_ No, no, no.  _ Ranbir thought to himself. His fingers scraped at the dirt floor of his home, where he slept. He sat up pulling his shirt off, as it was soaked in sweat. Carefully he stepped over the bodies of his sleeping brothers and sisters out to the road. The moon still sat high in the sky and was a comfort from his nightmare. 

Ranbir thought of his grandfather. Most people thought his grandfather was lazy because he sat around all day. He did not think about the gods or the after life or even moral dilemmas that consumed the minds of great philosophers. Ranbir’s grandfather thought about dreams. 

The boy walked out to the water’s edge. From there he could see the moon’s reflection in the water and the torch lights from the village made their way to the river as well. Ranbir squatted down so he could be closer to the earth and the sky, and so he could be closer to the water and fire all at once. From there he decided to face the fears of a his dream.

The first step was to consider the setting. His heart tightened. There were walls. Tall walls. And he was underground. It was an underground tunnel, leading all the way to the edge of the heavens. All you had to do was choose the correct door. There were doors of every color and material. As he walked down the hall he could hear a drum. It pounded each time his foot fell to the ground. Suddenly, there was a creature chasing him, and he ran.

He ran past the teal door, past the metal door, past the marble door, past the red door. He ran faster into a sprint and the creature matched pace all the while the drummer kept pounding. And the drummer was not using a regular drum, but Ranbir’s ear drum, giving him a terrible headache. 

But, Ranbir was interrupted. He thought he felt the hands of his grandfather land on his shoulders. That scared him half to death. It horrified him because in his dream the creature grabbed hold of him by the shoulders, jumping on his back and pulling him down. But Ranbir crawled. His fingers and toes gouged the ground grappling for traction towards a door, any door. He needed a way out.

But it was not his grandfather, it was his brother. His brother squatted down next to him without a word, just searching for a comforting soul. Ranbir continued to search the night for answers. When he had felt the creature reach into his ear and begin to tug at the drummer, Ranbir felt a trapdoor beneath his left hand. He flung the door open and fell in. This caused the creature to get sucked into his ear where the creature could torment the drummer.

The creature’s taunts and scourge made the drummer tired and his beats were less steady, slower, and quieter. Ranbir was dumped into a field. But up above him a school of fish swam by in the sky heading about their lives. A herd of antelopes sprang from star to star. A pack of wolves played in the snowy clouds.

All the animals had come from those before them. Even the raindrops making the clouds and the rice plants had predecessors who taught them the way.

Ranbir pulled his brother up and walked him back to the house to put him back to bed. But Ranbir stayed up and looked over the house he now owned.


End file.
